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Cougars win own tournament

FIRTH — It is a rarity when a wrestling tournament comes down to the final match of the day but that is exactly how the Firth Invitational Tournament came to an end as the final team tally wasn't decided until the final match was over.
For the Firth Cougars, that match was huge as Ben Cornia came through with a first period pin of his Challis opponent to give the Cougars a 2 point win in the team standings 169 to 167 for Challis.
"I knew that it was close but I didn't go and tell the last guys that they needed pins or anything like that," Firth head coach Keith Drake said. "We just told them go out and wrestle and they went out and did what they needed to do."
That last match wouldn't have been for the overall team title if not for a very strong effort from a very balanced Firth team. On the day, three Cougars finished on top of the podium with James Jolley at 215 and Jacob Butler at 140 joining Cornia as individual tournament champions.
Butlers tournament win was especially sweet as he knocked off the tournament champion from Malad from a tournament just two weeks prior in a narrow 6-4 decision.
"The one that really stood out was Jacob Butler at 140," coach Drake said. "He beat the guy that was champion two weeks ago at Malad. He really had a break out tournament, it was great."
Firth got second place finishes from Weston Burke and Conner Montgomery at 119 and 125 and a pair of third place finishes from Wesley Butler and Matt Lindberg at 112 and 145.
"The kids wrestled hard and it takes a lot of effort to set up the tournament so I probably wasn't as good a coach as I should be but the kids wrestled hard and prepared good this week and they did it," coach Drake said. "There were some really good teams here, it was a good tournament and I was real impressed with the effort of the whole team."
Aberdeens Jaiden Beck was able to pin his Ririe opponent in the 152 championship bout to capture the gold medal while team mate Greg Bartholoma took home the bronze medal at 189.
Snake River's Cash Cardona also earned a bronze medal with a third place finish in the 135 weight category.